Chacombe

Chacombe
SS Peter & Paul parish church
Chacombe  Chacombe shown within Northamptonshire
Population	659 (2011 census)[1]
OS grid reference	SP4943
Civil parish	Chacombe
District	South Northamptonshire
Shire county	Northamptonshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Banbury
Postcode district	OX17
Dialling code	01295
Police	Northamptonshire
Fire	Northamptonshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
EU Parliament	East Midlands
UK Parliament	Daventry
Website	Chacombe
List of places UK England Northamptonshire

Chacombe is a village and civil parish in South Northamptonshire, about 3 miles (5 km) northeast of Banbury in neighbouring Oxfordshire. It has sometimes been spelt Chalcombe.^[2] The parish is bounded to the west by the River Cherwell, to the north by a tributary of the Cherwell and to the southeast by the main road between Banbury and Syresham.

Manor

In the reign of Edward the Confessor in the middle of the 11th century, one Bardi held the manor of Chacombe "freely" (i.e. without a feudal overlord).^[3] However, the Domesday Book of 1086 records that after the Norman Conquest of England one Godfrey held the manor of "Cewecumbe" of Remigius de Fécamp, Bishop of Lincoln.^[3] The manor had four hides of arable land, nine acres of meadow and three watermills.^[3] In the 12th century the manor was still assessed as four hides and was still held of the Bishop of Lincoln.^[4]

Priory

Chacombe Priory

Hugh de Chacombe, lord of the manor of Chacombe, founded Chacombe Priory in the reign of Henry II (1154–89).^[5]

In 1536 the priory was suppressed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries^[5] and surrendered all of its properties to the Crown. Today the only visible remains of the priory are a small chapel apparently built in the 13th century^[6] and a set of mediaeval fishponds.^[5]

Part of the priory site is now occupied by a house, also called Chacombe Priory. The house has a large Elizabethan porch and a late-17th-century staircase, and was remodelled in the Georgian era.^[6]

Parish church

The earliest part of the Church of England parish church of Saints Peter and Paul is the Norman font.^[6] The current building is essentially Decorated Gothic from the early part of the 14th century, including the three-bay arcades either side of the nave.^[6] The north aisle has a 14th-century wall painting of Saint Peter being crucified upside-down.^[7] It is one of only two wall paintings of Saint Peter's crucifixion known in England, the other being in the parish church at Ickleton in Cambridgeshire. The church is a Grade I listed building.^[8]

The bell tower has a ring of six bells.^[9] William Bagley of Chacombe^[10] cast four of them including the treble bell in 1694.^[11] John Briant of Hertford^[10] cast the present fifth bell in 1790^[11] and the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the present tenor bell in 2009.^[11]

The parish of SS. Peter and Paul is now a member of the Chenderit benefice.^[12]

Social and economic history

A house in Silver Street being thatched in 2006

From 1605 until 1785 the Bagley family of Chacombe were bellfounders, casting more than 440 bells for churches in England^[13] including the four 1694 bells in Chacombe parish church.^[9] Master-founders at Chacombe included Henry I Bagley (active 1630–84), Matthew I Bagley (active 1679–90), Henry II Bagley (active 1679–1703), William Bagley (active 1687–1712), Henry III Bagley (active 1706–46) and Matthew III Bagley (active 1740–82).^[10] Henry II Bagley also ran another foundry at Ecton and Henry III Bagley also ran one at Witney.^[10]

Chacombe's village school was founded in 1868.^[14] It is now Chacombe Church of England (Aided) Primary School.^[15]

In 1900 the Great Central Railway's branch line between Culworth and Banbury was built through the northern edge of Chacombe parish. In 1911 the railway opened Chalcombe Road Halt just north of the village on Wardington Road. British Railways closed the halt in 1956 and the line in 1966.

Amenities

The village has a public house, the George and Dragon, controlled by Everards Brewery.^[16] Chacombe has a village hall.^[17]

The Cherwell Edge Golf Club lies in the parish to the south-east of the village.^[18]

References

Sign at the entrance to Chacombe village

Sources

• Adkins, W.R.D.; Serjeantson, R.M., eds. (1902). A History of the County of Northampton. Victoria County History 1. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co. pp. 312; 368. 
• Lewis, Samuel (1848). A Topographical Dictionary of England (7th ed.). London: Samuel Lewis. pp. 242–245. 
• Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (1973) [1961]. Northamptonshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 146. ISBN 0-14-071022-1. 
• Serjeantson, R.M.; Adkins, W.R.D., eds. (1906). "The Priory of Chalcombe". A History of the County of Northampton. Victoria County History 2. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co. pp. 133–135. 

External links

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